U.S. U-20s settle for fourth, Mexico takes title at Milk Cup

The U.S. Under-20 men's national team settled for fourth place at the Milk Cup in Northern Ireland, falling to Chile 4-3 in the third-place game Thursday.

Furman University centerback Walker Zimmerman scored in the first minute, Santos Laguna's Benji Joya scored and assisted on a goal, and Chicago Fire Homegrown Player Victor Pineda scored his second goal of the tournament to spearhead the U.S. attack.

Conceding three consecutive goals in a four-minute span midway through the second half immediately after Joya's goal was ultimately the U-20s' undoing, as it turned a 2-1 lead into a 4-2 deficit in a flash. Pineda tallied from the penalty spot in the 82nd minute to create some late drama, but the Americans could not find the late equalizer and fell, sealing a tournament in which it lost to Denmark and defeated Turkey.

Tab really needs to find a very good CDM like Shane O’Neil of the Rapids.

Still haven’t seen first choice CB’s Packwood and Brooks with this U-20 squad. No Luis Gil, no Marc Pelosi, no Bijev, No Keisewetter, no Salgado,
no Villarreal among many more first choice players that were not with this team. I think with the team Tab was able to construct they had a decent tournament.

I would imagine he has been able to identify which players that he see’s from this Milk Cup U-20 side that he wants to ultimately take to the U-20 WC Qualifying tournament.

Hopefully USSF will schedule more friendly’s from here until the U-20 qualifying tournament begins. Oh and hopefully Tab can persuade striker Julian Green Of Bayern Munich to suit up for the U.S. U-20’s.

If Tab can get mostly all of our big hitter’s for the Qualifying tournament then this U-20 side will be stacked with talent.

That is all true, and yet conceding three goals in four minutes is still shocking. Both can be true. It can be embarrassing to be cut apart like that even if many of our top guys are with their clubs and this is the B team.

Not a good sign if they cannot get these guys released to play in a tournament in July. And this is a good tournament.
How long do you think their clubs will be willing to release them for qualifying? Ramos has 1 win in 3 foreign trips.

It’s easy to hide behind the fact that a lot of the “top” players in this age group weren’t a part of this squad but the reality is that those same “top” players will more than likely not be released for qualifying in February of next year.